High Court grants protective bail to Zardari

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday granted protective bail to former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) supremo Asif Ali Zardari.

The SHC heard a petition filed by Zardari in which he challenged a banking court’s ruling allowing the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to transfer the fake bank accounts case to Rawalpindi from Karachi.

A two-member bench, comprising SHC Chief Justice Ahmed Ali Sheikh and Justice Umar Sial, heard the plea.

Zardari’s counsel, Farooq H. Naek, said that the transfer of the case was in contradiction with a Supreme Court verdict passed in January this year.

“What will you say about the verdict?” Justice Sheikh asked Naek.

The counsel said that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) “misinterpreted” it and added that in paragraph 300 of its ruling, the apex court had not ordered that the case should be transferred to Rawalpindi.

He said that the Supreme Court had ordered NAB to complete its probe within two months and that time period had already lapsed.

Justice Sheikh asked Naek if he had raised this point in the top court, to which the lawyer replied that the mater had not come under discussion in the Supreme Court.

“The NAB chairman submited a request in this regard in the banking court ater the Supreme Court had wrapped up the fake accounts’ case,” Zardari’s lawyer said.

He argued that the fake accounts case did not fall under NAB’S jurisdiction as it was not related to corruption.

The first information report, Naek said, did not say that the case should be investigated by NAB.

The bench, however, said that the top court had “writen in its verdict that it orders the case to be transferred to NAB.” “What is let ater the Supreme Court’s verdict?” asked Justice Sheikh.

The SHC issued notices to NAB prosecutor and director general of the body’s Karachi chapter, ordering them to submit their response within a week.

The bench dismissed Naek’s request to summon the entire record of the case.

The high court also turned down Zardari’s request to issue a stay order and declared that a decision will be taken ater listening to all parties of the case. The hearing was adjourned until March 26.